Difference Between Sony Xperia P and Sony Xperia U

Sony Xperia P vs Sony Xperia U | Speed, Performance and Features Reviewed | Full Specs Compared
 

Last month was rather interesting for the mobile world due to the CES 2012 and as tech savvy consumers; we enjoyed the state of the art exhibits that would take a lot of time to reach us otherwise. One of the products we saw at the CES was the beginning of the Sony NXT series. Sony has bought the Ericsson division and now they go under the name Sony alone and at the MWC 2012, there are a couple of more handsets of the Sony NXT series. This decision of Sony is great in terms of marketing, but there may be some confusion involved for Sony is still producing Sony Ericsson handsets, as well. As far as we can see, Sony will cease manufacturing Sony Ericsson mobile line sometime in the future and completely switch to Sony. The new family members for Sony Xperia family are Sony Xperia P and Sony Xperia U. I am not at the liberty of explaining what P and U stands for, but we hope Sony would have a nice expansion to them.

At a glance, both of these handsets are targeted at the mid-range market with mid-range processors and memory. Both run on Android OS and carry the distinctive design signature of Sony Xperia line introduced last month. They have acceptable optics and other accessories similar to the smartphones of the same caliber and resemble the hardware specs of them, as well. The difference lies in the processor, which is distinct from the other ARM and Scorpion processors we have seen in the market. That means Xperia line comes with a different chipset and a GPU, as well. We will talk about them and compare them at the same arena to identify the differences between them so that we can choose the best option among those.

Sony Xperia P

Sony Xperia P resembles the design of Sony Xperia Ion having a transparent ledge at the bottom followed by an emboss reading XPERIA. It comes in Silver, Black and Red in color and feels elegant in your hand. It’s neither the thinnest nor the lightest smartphone we have come across, yet Xperia P is not a pain in your hand even if you have to hold it for a long time. It has 4.0 inch LED backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels at a pixel density of 275ppi. The backlighting ensures that you can use this phone even in broad daylight. The resolution is acceptable, and one won’t notice much difference in clarity and crispness with the text nor images with the given pixel density. The display panel comes with Sony WhiteMagic technology and Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine for graphics enhancement and better color reproduction.

This handset is powered by 1GHz dual core processor on top of STE U8500 chipset with a DB8500 GPU and 1GB of RAM. Sony assures us that they give out a smooth operation. Xperia P runs on Android OS v3.2 Gingerbread, and Sony promises a planned upgrade sometime during 2012. One might expect Sony to come out with a LTE smartphone, but you’ll have to hold that thought for a little while since Xperia P comes with HSDPA connectivity only. The Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity ensures that you’re constantly connected, and it also can act as a Wi-Fi hotspot to share your internet connection. The built-in DLNA functionality enables you to stream rich media content wirelessly to your Smart Sony TV.

Sony is normally associated with cameras as well, and this phone also has a great 8MP camera with an Exmor Sensor. It has autofocus, LED flash, image stabilization with Geo tagging. The 1080p HD video capturing at 30 frames per second is another great feature we would like to emphasize. The front camera is VGA quality, which is enough for video conferencing. Sony has included the traditional Timescape UI in Xperia P, and we have some doubt on the internal storage of 16 GB since they don’t provide options to expand using a microSD card. Sony claims Xperia P would have a talk time of 6 hours, which is somewhat behind the line.

Sony Xperia U

Another member from the Xperia family that is smaller than Xperia P. The Sony Xperia U is not only smaller, but also lighter than Xperia P; unfortunately, it’s a bit thicker than P too. It comes in either Black or White but has exchangeable bottom caps of the colors White, Black, Pink and Yellow. You may have already gathered that Xperia U also follows the same design with a transparent ledge at the bottom separating the screen. It has 3.5 inches LED backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of 280ppi. Following Xperia P, it also has Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine and Timescape UI. This handset is also powered by the same 1GHz dual core processor on top of the same STE U8500 chipset with 512MB of RAM. It runs on Android OS v3.2 Gingerbread, and Sony guarantees an upgrade to Android OS v4.0 ICS soon. We have some concerns about the RAM in the transition to ICS, but hopefully Sony will tweak the OS to fit the memory.

The 5MP camera in Sony Xperia U has autofocus and LED flash. It can also record 720p videos at 30 frames per second and has Geo tagging with Assisted GPS. The front camera is only VGA quality but serves the purpose of video conferencing bundled together with Bluetooth v2.1. The urging bottleneck we saw in Xperia U is the restriction of internal memory to 4GB without an option to expand using a microSD card. Sony Xperia U stays connected with HSDPA connectivity, and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n ensure continuous connectivity with the added advantage of the ability to act as a wi-fi hotspot and share your internet connection. The built-in DLNA operates the same way as Xperia P and streams rich media content wirelessly to your big screen. Sony has promised a talk time of 6 hours and 36 minutes with the standard 1320mAh battery.

Conclusion

In this comparison, there are some things that are worth noting. To get an overall idea, I can wrap up by saying that Sony Xperia P and Sony Xperia U are more or less similar with minor differences in size, memory and display panel. Sony Xperia P is obviously the better one among these two for it has a better RAM at 1GB and better internal storage at 16GB. Xperia P also has better optics with the 8MP camera and 1080p HD video recording capability. The BRAVIA engine is definitely a welcome addition to the handset, as well. It proves that Sony pours their expertise from other subsidiaries such as Television sector into the smartphone sector to make it better consistently. Xperia P also has a bigger screen than the Xperia U although the screen panels are identical and both can be used in wide daylight. That been said, I don’t reckon there will be much difference in the price either for they are more or less equal smartphones. Thus, my obvious choice would be to go for Sony Xperia P rather than entangling myself with Xperia U.